The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1908. GOVERNMENT AID TO BURNED-OUT SETTLERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 383, 27 February 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1908. GOVERNMENT AID TO BURNED-OUT SETTLERS.

One heais a great deal of an advc:se (.li.t.ac'.cr fro 11 lime to lime of the quality of the Government's administration. There are not a few represented by the proverbial Irishmen who are always “agin the Government” from pure “cussedness,” and can make a dear case against any form of administration from pro-Conservative to ultra-Socialistic. On the one hand doing enough and on the other-hand a government is blamed for not for doing too much. The action of Sir Joseph Ward, as head of the Government, in relation to the distribution of grass seed will be published in exteuso in our next issue, must we think, commend itself to every class in the, community, and place the Government in this matter beyond reproach. The disaster of the recent bush fires is much greater .than most of us who have been outside the fire zone can realise, and there are many who have not only lost homes and grass, but who are now compelled through want of herbage to dispose of their stock at a sacrifice. The country that has been devastated by the recent conflagration is so completely denuded of vegetation, that many months must elapse even under the most favoured circumstances before the hills aud valleys are again clothed with lucious verdure, and that, only after a general sowing of seed.. In the face of the tremendous losses that have been sustained, and the consequent hardships that must be experienced for some time to come, it is refreshing to find that we have a-Government so seized with the people’s need that it is ready and willing to give them a lift over the stile when the necessity arises.